I am trying to parse an ini file and grab specific key-value pairs,given a section name and key name. I use the following code, using Linq, and it works if I don't include the key name in its search but returns empty list if I do.

Sample ini section:

[INSTANCES]
NUMVTC=3
VTC=0,3330,ABCD,DESCR0
VTC=1,3331,EFGH,DESCR1
VTC=2,3332,IJKL,DESCR2

partial code to parse the file

List vals = File.ReadLines(sMappingFilePath)
    .SkipWhile(line => !line.StartsWith("[instances]", 
        StringComparison.CurrentCultureIgnoreCase))
    .Skip(1)
    .TakeWhile(line => !string.IsNullOrEmpty(line) && line.StartsWith("vtc", StringComparison.CurrentCultureIgnoreCase))  // The "vtc" portion breaks it
    .Select(line => new IniEntry(line.Split('=')[0], line.Split('=')[1])).ToList();


public class IniEntry
{
    public string Key { get; set; }
    public string Value { get; set; }

    public IniEntry(string key, string val) {
        Key = key;
        Value = val;
    }
}

If I remove the part that says "line.StartsWith("vtc"...", it works and returns all key-value pairs under INSTANCES, including NUMVTC=3, which I want to skip.

I want to make this into a generic function that would return key-value pairs given a section name and key name.

Update

I modified the code, based on suggestions and comments, and made it to a generic function that takes .ini file path, section name and key name and return list on IniEntry objects.

   public static List GetIniSectionDataList(string sIniFilePath, string sSection, string sKey)
    {
        List ls = new List();

        if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(sIniFilePath))
        {
            return ls;
        }
        // In case user enters **[blah** , or **blah]**
        sSection = sSection.Replace("[", string.Empty).Replace("]", string.Empty);
        sSection = "[" + sSection + "]";

        ls = File.ReadLines(sIniFilePath)
            .SkipWhile(line => !line.StartsWith(sSection, StringComparison.CurrentCultureIgnoreCase))
            .Where(line => line.StartsWith(sKey, StringComparison.CurrentCultureIgnoreCase))
            //.Skip(1)
            .TakeWhile(line => !string.IsNullOrEmpty(line))
            .Select(line => new IniEntry(line.Split('=')[0], line.Split('=')[1]))ToList();

        return ls;
    }

I call it using:

List vals = TCLogFile.GetIniSectionDataList(sMappingFilePath, "instances", "vtc");